The present invention relates to devices with displays. In particular, the present invention relates to computing and mobile devices.
Mobile devices, such as personal information managers (PIMs), cellular telephones, pagers, watches, and wearable computers typically include one or more buttons or touch screens through which the mobile device receives explicit instructions from the user. For example, the user can press buttons to explicitly instruct the device to enter a full-power mode, activate an application, or scroll through an image on the display.
Although the devices are responsive to information provided through such explicit instructions, they are generally not responsive to information that is present in the manner in which the device is being handled by the user. For example, the devices do not automatically enter a full-power mode, even when the user is holding the device in a manner that is consistent with wanting to use the device.
The reason these devices are not responsive to such handling information is that they typically are not equipped with the sensors needed to detect the information nor with the software needed to interpret the information.
Because these devices are generally not responsive to the manner in which the user is holding the device, the user is forced to enter explicit instructions into the device to achieve various functions. In light of this, mobile devices are needed that can sense how they are being handled in order to perform certain background functions that expand the functionality of the mobile device without requiring the user to perform any additional actions.